The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-08-03

ton about book reviewers. There are many
other interesting articles and the poetry Of
the number is unusually good New York
Harper & Brothers.
GILMAN's HIsToRIcAL READERS: |. =" The
Discovery and Exploration of America"
1913 PIP. Price thirty-six cents II. &" The
Colonization of America" 100 PIP. Price
forty-eight cents. III. "The Making of
the American Nation" 1872 PIP. Price
sixty cents. BY Arthur Gilman, MA.
Boston Interstate Publishing Co., 30
Franklin street. The purpose of these
books is to present TO the minds of the
youngest readers in schools and families
a simple and clear account of the growth of
our nation and of the events which pre-
coded its birth on the continent of America.
Number one, from the romantic nature of
its story, is appropriate for the use of the
youngest pupils. In it the language is very
simple, and but few words are used which
will not be readily understood. The sub
ject of number two is more difficult and the
style is naturally adapted to the slight
progress that ought to be made in using
number one. Number three is still larger,
and as it discusses the principles of gov
eminent and the great topics that have en-
gagged the attention of the American people
during the last century, it may be used by
class little more advanced than that for
which its predecessors are adapted. Each
volume is furnished with an index.
SELECT POEMS BY Algernon Charles
Swinburne. New York Worthngton &
Co. Mr.. Swinburne appears at his best in
this collection of his poems. 1t has all of
his beauty and nothing of his balefulness.
1t is small collection, and yet had he writ
ten no more we doubt whether he would
have been less entitled TO our respect and
regard In the poems before us we hear
none of the cries of the strong man whose
life has been wrecked none of the soft notes
that wake passion to no good end Yet in
such poems as " Hertha," "By the North
Sea and "a Years Burden" there is a
rush of such mighty wings as to have borne
few poets OF our time; and in " A Forsaken
Garden and Anadyomene Ga fragment
from " Atlanta in Calydon ~ his sweet sing
ing must wake soft thoughts without re-
prOach in the most madenly breast. But
the chief charm for us in the book is the ex-
quisite series OF songs about children. In the
tenderness of these poems we seem to see the
cynic, the man of the world, turning from
the cold vanities of life to the fresh inno-
cence of infancy and finding balm for the
weary spirit unhoped for upon earth He
takes JOY in the untried hope, the unbought
happiness, the unconscious beauty and the
unsoled soul of childhood and sings of
them with grace and depth of feeling that
we are disposed to think unequaed.
THE CENTURY for August opens with
an illustrated paper entitled Snubbin
Through jersey" of which Mr. f. Hopkin.
son Smith and Mr.. j. B. Millett are the
joint authors. 1t is presentation of life
on an American cana-boat in its various
phases. Here is kind of life of which lit.
tie has been written, and there is just enough
remOteness from the experiences of most
people to make it novelty. Mr.. William
Earl Hidden has readable bit of writing
entitled " Is it a Piece of Comet?" 1t is a
study of a famous meteorite and is well H.
lustrated. Mr.. J. G. Harris begins negro
story, which is full of negro English and
there is charming poem by Mr.. j. w
Riley, entitled " Nothing to Say" A large
amount of space is taken up with " Lincoln
Cooper Institute Speech" which is also fully
illustrated. Mr.. Edward Atkinson con.
tributes one of his exhaustive economic pa.
pers on Low Prices, High Wages, Small
Protits-What Makes Them" in which he
reaches the conclusion that tampering with
or debasng the standard of values is the
most malignant fraud which the govern
ment can perpetrate. General Joseph E
Johnston writes the war article on "Oppos
ing Sherman's Advance to Atlanta" and
Colonel Henry Stone relates the facts about
Hoods Invasion of Tennessee" In the
open letters Mr.. T.. b. Perry writes wisely
on the education of blind children and DR.
Washington GLADDEN. has some excellent
suggestions about Ministerial Bureaux.'
There is nothing further in this issue which
calls for notice.
SAMANTHA AT SARATOGA. By Josiah
Aliens Wife. Everybody has heard OF
Saratoga, but few comparatively know
much of its peculiar ways. No summer re-
sort enjoys a more cosmopolitan patronage
or has livelier round of enjoyments than
Saratoga. Here the railroad kings and
merchant princes have long been accus
toned to gather, while, naturally enough
the lesser satellites which always revolve
around these suns are clustered in the same
nj of ha faS
rich and those who would be thought rich
health-seekers, peasure-seekers, money
seekers and matrimonia-seekers flock tc
Saratoga and crowd its great hotels and its
innumerahle boarding-houses making a con
course infinitely diversified and full of in
terest to every observant and thoughtful
person. Into this wild whirl of fashion
Miss Holley's new book plunges the reader
But they enter not as participants who are
part and parcel of the great show, hut as
spectators, whose views, habits of life and
sympathies are all in other spheres Josiah
and Samantha Allen are from a retired and
inconspicuOus village of New York state
They represent the unsophisticated, but
sound, sensible people of that section, who
have seen but little of the world but who
have keen perceptions and wonderfully
clear judgments as TO what is fit and proper
Two such persons settled down amid the
fashion and frivolity of Saratoga would see
blunders and drop many quaint expires
sion. Josiah, for example, amid these sur
roundings is strikingly like the famous bul
in china-shop, He is continually going
wrong, and Samantha is perseveringy try
ing to correct him, while both are widely
out OF harmony with the life about them
This is the lead which Miss Holley works
in her characteristic book, " Samantha al
Saratoga" just issued by Hubbard Brother,
of Philadelphia. Her rank among humor
Gus writers has long been deservedly high
but this is her browning work. For a bril-
liant, telling, humorous setting forth of tn,
conspicuous features of Saratoga life it can
not be excelled. We advise our readers t
secure a copy The book is wonderfully en-
riched by the many laugh-provoking illus
trations designed by f. Opper, the cele
brated artist Of Puck
First Revolutionary Martyr.